Legal March Madness Betting For 2019

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, a.k.a. March Madness (a.k.a. the Big Dance), takes place every year during the second week of March and runs through the beginning of April, when the season’s champion will be crowned. As the single biggest wagering event in all of college sports, the tournament brings in a lot of legal March Madness betting action each year, with three weeks featuring 67 games to wager on. The sheer volume of games alone presents numerous opportunities to boost your bankroll, and when you factor in the hundreds of props, game lines, and futures, your potential earnings are limitless.

Of course, you don’t actually have to go to Nevada, Atlantic City, or any other sports betting town to enjoy legal March Madness betting. Thanks to offshore Internet betting shops like Bovada, SportsBetting, and others, you can actually wager on every matchup of the 68-team tournament freely, legally, and with full confidence that your bets are safe and your payouts guaranteed. Of the estimated 30 million Americans who bet on March Madness each year, over 95% of them do so at these legal online sportsbooks.

March Madness Wager Types

Before you take part in legal March Madness betting, it’s imperative that you understand the basic March Madness wager types. Fortunately, putting money on the tournament is the same general process as betting on any other basketball game or event, and the common bets most people make should be fairly familiar to you.

The most popular March Madness wager types include picking the tournament’s outright winner, betting the spread on individual games, betting individual game winners straight up (a.k.a. a moneyline bet), betting the over/under or game totals, and betting on game props and futures. While most of these bets won’t be posted at any sportsbook until the tournament is seeded and gets underway, you can usually bet on the outright winner long before the tournament starts.

When it comes to land-based, brick-and-mortar sports wagering, there are still only a limited number of places you can place your basketball bets. To date, there are 9 states with legal March Madness betting available to the public. These include Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Mexico, and Arkansas. If you live in one of these states, there’s a good chance that you live fairly close to a casino or racino venue that accepts sports betting.

However, there are exceptions to the above. Residents of (or guests visiting) Delaware, New Jersey, or Rhode Island may not wager on games featuring collegiate teams from their home states. That means that New Jersey bettors cannot bet on Seton Hall games, for example, and DE and RI gamblers can’t put money on games including their hometown teams (not that either of those latter states is all that likely to have representation in the Big Dance).

There are currently two other states – New York and Connecticut – that have legalized sports betting but that will not launch any customer-facing sportsbooks in time to use them for wagering on March Madness. Washington, D.C. has also legalized sports betting, but they’re in the same boat. Hopefully, these states will have their books up and running well before March Madness 2020.

If you live in a different state than the above (or if you live in a state that forbids wagering on any home-team action), there is a solution: legal USA online sportsbooks. These sites, operating overseas and outside of US jurisdiction, are allowed to take US customers, and you are free to use these sites to place real-money wagers on March Madness and all other NCAA and professional sports action. Even if you have a local sportsbook to bet on the basketball tournament, it still makes sense to use these books as points of reference, allowing you to shop lines for the very best possible payouts. In their way, these offshore books are the best gambling edge any NCAA sports bettor can get. And best of all, there is never any hometown skew on the odds boards when betting online!

Are March Madness Brackets and Office Pools Legal?

Yes, March Madness brackets and office pools are legal. While only about a quarter of US states have explicit carve-outs for this particular pastime on their books, office brackets/pools have been a tradition for decades nationwide. Even in states that do not address NCAA March Madness brackets and states that explicitly ban sports betting, brackets and pools - conducted without a “house take” - are considered legal. As long as your office isn’t taking a little “off the top”, you can rest assured that everything is on the up and up.

In fact, most sports media outlets (as well as US-based sportsbooks and overseas sports betting shops) offer printable “official” office brackets on their websites in the lead-up to the tourney. You do not have to worry about being fined or arrested for participating in office brackets or pools for March Madness. All you need to concern yourself with is setting your picks and having a good time when the hottest basketball tournament on the planet finally gets underway.

In-Game March Madness Betting

In addition to the normal bet types, sports gamblers putting money on the NCAA tournament can take advantage of in-game March Madness betting. In-game betting, also called live betting, takes place not before a given contest, but during the game itself. By utilizing online sportsbooks’ cutting-edge live portals, bettors can wager on the outcomes of in-match events that occur in real time, putting money on things like single possession results, free throw makes and misses, and more.

However, bear in mind that basketball is extremely fluid, and in-game bets may only be on the boards for a few seconds. So make sure you’re watching the game and have your computer or mobile tuned into your favorite betting shop’s live betting page.

Mobile March Madness Betting Apps

Unfortunately, there are no official mobile March Madness betting apps, as Apple and Google do not allow such in the App Store or on Google Play. That said, the best online sportsbooks have all created specific website portals with full mobile optimization, so you can efficiently and easily find March Madness wagers and place March Madness bets on the go. If you’ve got a mobile device and an Internet connection, you can legally bet on the big NCAA tourney no matter where in the country you happen to be.

The top sportsbooks even have support for live in-game betting via their mobile interfaces. Perhaps one day there will be native mobile March Madness betting apps for each big betting shop, but until that time, this is the next best thing.

Best Online Sportsbooks For Legal March Madness Betting

There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of betting shops littering the Internet, but most of these are...litter. They’re either small sportsbooks with no history and no pedigree or they’re outright scams. In either case, it’s an unnecessary risk to place your wagers with anyone but the industry’s top services.

The best USA online sportsbooks for legal March Madness betting are Bovada, SportsBetting, BetOnline, BetDSI, 5Dimes, and BookMaker. Each of these sites has been around for years, and they’ve all got solid reputations among their tens of millions of US customers. Pick one or several – you can’t go wrong signing up at any of these first-rate sportsbooks.

Legal March Madness Betting At Bovada

Legal March Madness betting at Bovada is a world-class experience, and millions of US bettors trust Bovada with their wagers on the Big Dance each year. When you’ve never missed a single March Madness payout, it’s easy to get a reputation among sports betting fans for awesome customer service. New members can even get a $250 Sports Welcome Bonus to put on their favorite teams and brackets. If you deposit with Bitcoin, you can claim a bonus worth up to $5,000 that can be used in both the sportsbook and the casino. BVSBITCOIN will unlock a 50% match bonus up to $250, while BVCBITCOIN150 will reward a 3x redeemable 150% match bonus up to $1,500. Create your account at Bovada sportsbook today!

(Note: Bovada is not available to residents of DE, MD, NV, or NJ at this time.)

SportsBetting.ag –is without question one of the best sportsbooks in the country, with millions of satisfied sports betting fans from all 50 states. In addition to having one of the best mobile betting sites in the business, SportsBetting also offers the industry’s most comprehensive and varied deposit and withdrawal options to suit every customer’s needs. They even accept bitcoin! In fact, bettors can redeem a 50% cryptocurrency bonus with code BETCRYPTO. The bookmaker will credit your account with an instant bonus of up to $500. For the best experience with legal March Madness betting, sign up at SportsBetting.ag now!

The best March Madness betting deposit methods for you will depend upon your needs. If time is not a pressing issue, you can choose to use bank wire transfers, money orders, and personal checks. Bankwire transfers are best for high roller sports bettors because there is no limit on the amount that can be deposited into your sportsbook account.

If speed is more important, credit and debit charges are instantaneous, although they carry much smaller limits. For a good balance between speed and deposit limits, using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is a great choice. Your deposit will be credited within minutes and you can deposit 10X more than you would with a credit card. At SportsBetting, for example, bettors can only deposit up to $5,000 with a credit card, but up to $25,000 with Bitcoin.

Fastest March Madness Betting Payout Methods

When using offshore sportsbooks, legal March Madness betting payouts are always going to be a slow proposition. After all, that money is coming from overseas. Courier checks, bank wires, and money orders all take between five days and two weeks to get to your hands. If you need your winnings right away, the fastest March Madness betting payout methods are going to be cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. (Note: SportsBetting and BetOnline also accept Litecoin, Dash, and Ethereum in addition to the Bitcoin industry standard.)